Not so far as I know. I’ve been told the following site has been flagged by google for maybe having malware. I’ve not had any from it, AFAIK. That out of the way, it has a bit of rank speculation about the device’s construction: Nashville’s Big Bomb Was a Very Rare Device, Experts Think
I’m told that mixing/matching “thermobaric” devices with “fuel/air explosion” is a further clue the author doesn’t know what s/he’s talking about. So, another strike against them.
I’ve thought it was a derivative of some flammable gas explosion, personally. Though I certainly didn’t do well in P.Chem, I looked at the energetics on 30-40 pounds of well-mixed propane—typical bottle sizes on a RV—and I came up about 350 lbs of TNT’s worth of energy. Which seems about right, if a touch high, given the damage. Now, how fast would that kind of gas explosion be converted, vs the extremely fast reaction speeds of explosives is another question.
One problem is the Lower and Upper Explosive Limits on propane are sufficiently low to require a large volume to spread the propane through. I got around 280 cubic meters, which is a wee bit larger than an RV, and if it’s in the open air, it likely dissipates before it can stay within the explosive limit. I’ve no idea what doing something like adding oxygen to the mix does to the UEL. Or making the gas something else like acetylene, or other methods of enabling a fuel-rich explosive mixture to ignite and deflagrate.
Here’s the question, what does “mental crisis” mean? Is the person lucid? Agitated? chasing imaginary butterflies? A person can be agitated and still be capable of recalling details. Those details can be challenged for accuracy.
The police did a drive by of the house to check off a proverbial box on a report but did they ask the pertinent questions? Could she have described what the bomber was doing in a way that an explosives expert could discern? that would be an investigation.
Mentally ill people can testify in court, so the police should have checked her story even if her diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia, which I’m sure it wasn’t. This isn’t the 50’s, where if you “see things” they lock you in the looney bin without further hesitation.
By default the police see a higher percentage of people who are not tightly wrapped. It’s the nature of the job.
We won’t know the whole story for some time. Maybe it spurs on a policy of threat assessment where more weight is assigned to something based on the nature of the complaint.
On a completely different train of thought I’d like to know the timeline of the fence he built. Was it built to keep it away from public view after the police looked the RV over? Is that when the security cameras were added?
still have to meet the test of probable cause an offence is being committed to justify a judge issuing a search warrant. Different threat assessment by the police may be helpful to push their investgation, but they would still need evidence.
Yes, but you don’t have to have probable cause to investigate. When you combine information from his girlfriend, his relocation of the RV behind a fence, addition of security cameras, giving away house(s) and a car… eventually you get to a search warrant.
The first step is gathering information. I would imagine most warrants are the result of this process and not a single piece of evidence.
You don’t need probable cause to investigate, but you do need it to get a warrant. Changing LEO investigation protocols may mean that they will put greater resources into a search, but they still have to meet the probable cause standard to get a warrant.
The standard to get a warrant is usually that there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed, and probable cause that there will be evidence of that crime at the location proposed to be searched.
All of the things you list have innocent explanations.
information from his girlfriend [mental health issues]
relocation of the RV behind a fence [personal desire for privacy]
addition of security cameras [concern about crime rates and home security]
giving away house(s) and a car… [statement that he has terminal cancer]
The warrant judge has to take innocent explanations into account, particularly since the search warrant application is ex parte by the police, and there’s no-one making the opposite case to the judge of insufficient evidence.
Where’s the probable cause to believe an offence has been committed? or that evidence of an offence is at the location?
Every nutjob that they’ve been speifically asked to look into? It’s a bit different when phrased that way. So with the fact that they’re so mum considering this particular nutjob that they were told about, I’m throwing “possibly” off to the side and leaning toward “possibly not”. Or even “likely not”. Or “not at all”.
there’s really no point arguing the merits of a warrant without knowing what the police know. I merely pointed out that cause existed to investigate and that’s what it takes to get a warrant.
There’s nothing stopping the police from asking to search the RV. A refusal isn’t probable cause but is enough to keep that person on their radar. It might also be enough to spook a potential bomber into finding a new hobby …or method of suicide.
The police tried to get the guy to open his door. They couldn’t force that without a warrant. Without speaking to the guy (or a warrant), they couldn’t ask to see his RV.
I’m thinking the police attempted contact, followed up with the feds. I don’t know what the further plan would’ve been. There were no complaints from the neighbors.
The device that was used in the Nashville explosion was probably not the first device that this person built. The more rare the device, the more intricate the device, the more likely that the builder had to make prototypes & test them. This is a lengthy process. You have to acquire & assemble the materials, sometimes several times.
Where I am going with this is that if the girlfriend arrived at the police station with “my boyfriend is making a bomb” and no other details, maybe that’s an easy thing to dismiss, especially if she’s prone to other fantastical ideas. But, on the other hand, if she has details… about the materials or testing sites or purchasing (financial) details, or about potential target (s)… Well, that fleshes out the story a bit & makes it harder to ignore.
Gathering these details is the job of the police through their interview(s) of the girlfriend. Maybe her story by itself wouldn’t be enough for a warrant, but it might be enough for other interviews - of siblings (if he has any) or parents (if living), of neighbors and so forth. Quite honestly, part of the interview of the girlfriend should have been, “Is there anyone else who could corroborate any of these details?”
Apparently the guy sent packages to people a couple of days before the explosion. This article includes:
On another page Warner wrote about 9-11 conspiracy theories, ending with the statement “The moon landing and 9-11 have so many anomalies they are hard to count.”
Warner later wrote that “September 2011 was supposed to be the end game for the planet,” because that is when he believed that aliens and UFO’s began launching attacks on earth.